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The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian.

Inkscape is one of the most popular free software vector drawing applications. With minimal effort you can achieve some excellent results. However, for the inexperienced it can be a bit hard to find out how to get those results. In this tutorial I'll look at creating a simple ribbon effect which will hopefully introduce some of the key Inkscape features along the way.

I know you’re looking at it. I know because I can track links through Wordpress, and two hours after I posted that last screenshot, I had double-digit clickthroughs. It is a rather interesting image, don’t you think?

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor, similar to Illustrator or Xara. It uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It's capable of creating objects with a variety of drawing, shape and text tools. You can edit previously created objects with scale, gradients, masks, and filtered effects.

This isn't really an Earth-shattering technique, but I've lucked out with it enough times to warrant a tutorial. It actually fits with the popular art-school methods for drawing a figure on paper, especially for drawing superhero-type figures.

Fractals have a long history of fascinating computer and math geek alike, but this time we're going to take the way a fractal simulates natural ordered chaos and apply it to the practical purpose of drawing a natural object! However, this isn't going to be a very realistic tree, just a drawing good enough for an icon or a game sprite.